Tainted Blood
by byakugan.27
Summary: Loki is believed to be dead, so is naturally hiding in plain sight, living life in Asgard. He should be able to get away with it , so how is it that someone discovers his identity? No pairings. Rated T for suggested sexual themes in later chapters. This story is set after Thor 2: The Dark World and contains characters and settings from both Thor and the Avengers.
1. Chapter 1

The festivities were getting to be a bit much for the cloaked man heading for the exit of the tavern. It had been a long couple of weeks and keeping up his illusion was not as effortless as it usually was. He supposed he'd better head back to the inn room he was indefinitely renting and get some rest before he slipped up.

"There's a young lady in there looking for a dance with you." A voice notified him from behind a pillar. He paused. Tempting as it was, now was not the time for it.

"I'm afraid I will have to keep her waiting. I am retiring to my room."

"You would leave her at so early an hour to be alone in your room? Go and entertain her. You are unlikely to turn into a pumpkin if you are out past midnight." The deep voice chuckled.

The words seemed pointed, like they held deeper meaning. It was almost as though this man could tell…

The cloaked man spun to face the voice. "Who are you?" he growled. His disguise faltered for a moment and his green eyes flashed from beneath his hood.

A large dark man stepped out into the moonlight beneath the archways. "I mean you know harm friend." He smiled. "Just some advice from one warrior to another." There was a hint of sarcasm in his voice. What did this man know?

"What do you know of me that you can hand out advice as though we are friends? I have never laid eyes upon you before."

His smile widened. "That's funny, for I have never laid eyes upon you either, and I am good with faces. Yours is nameless and…" he paused for emphasis "alien."

The smaller man visibly stiffened. "Speak not in tongues. Reveal your thoughts." His hand moved subtly to his dagger in his cloak.

"You are not who you seem. In fact, every time I have seen you in the past season, you have had a different face."

A harsh laugh met that. "What is this nonsense? Surely, a man with a different face is a different man! I think you've had far too much ale, my _friend._"

"Ah, well you would think that would be the case yes. Except that I followed you out here and your face has already changed since you left the bar. You have grown taller as if my presence threatens you." His eyes glinted with victory. "I know who you are, but you need not fear me. I told you already that I mean you no harm."

Very green eyes narrowed sharply. "Your _knowledge _is a danger to me. I cannot take your word for it and you know that. Why have you told me this?" The dagger was slowly pulled from its hiding location.

"It must be lonely, always hiding."

That was it? He mentally rolled his eyes. "You know nothing. As… _kind_ as your intentions may be, I cannot let you carry whatever knowledge you think you have."

And the dagger was there, plunged into the larger man's chest up under his plate mail armour. He coughed, a trickle of red running down his chin from his open mouth. An open mouth that held amusement rather than surprise.

"I know you would rather no one knew your current… situation, but I do, and there is nothing that you can do about it, Loki Laufeyson."

Loki's eyes widened in shock as the dying man before him disappeared suddenly, as though he was never there. This was not good. This was very not good.


	2. Chapter 2

It had been three weeks since the incident and Loki was still on edge, constantly checking over his shoulder. He knew of no one in Asgard who could perform illusions with that level of skill besides himself. It troubled him that this person knew who he was but he had no clue who they were. The elusive man had apparently kept true to his word that he meant Loki no harm, for no one had come looking for him to arrest him.

Staring out from his small balcony, he was completely lost in thought when a loud knock came from his door. He froze, eyes narrowed with suspicion, and went to open it. Whatever he had been expecting to find, it was not this beautiful young girl with a long silver dress decorating his doorstep.

"Who are you?" he asked, surprised.

"Do you not remember me?" she asked. And when she looked up at him, her eyes looked very familiar. "I guess I looked a bit different last time." She grinned.

And the grin suddenly put the pieces together. Her face, the set of her jaw, the crinkles beside her eyes, were all very much like those of the dark man under the arches… He reeled back in shock. He itched to draw his dagger but refrained, for the moment.

"Who are you." He demanded this time. "Where did you learn to perform such powerful illusions?"

She smiled. "Oh, you do remember me! I'm so pleased you haven't killed me this time. I learnt my magic from one of the very best in Asgard." She winked.

Loki kept silent, thinking fast. His mother had taught him his basic illusions, but he had surpassed her ability at a very young age. Outside of the royal family, magic users were very rare, and any who were half-way decent were recruited to work for the king. They were all well-known to Loki and none had this kind of talent for illusions.

"You're supposed to say 'thank you' when you're complimented." She chided playfully "And offer to let people in when they knock at your door." She added as an afterthought.

The disguise he was wearing narrowed its eyes, but moved back stiffly and gestured for the girl to come in. "You say that I taught you, but I have taught no one. Explain yourself." He stated simply.

She looked around his room with curiosity as she entered, eyes drawn to the sofa. "May I?" she asked. He nodded and she sat.

"Where do I begin…?" she muttered to herself thoughtfully. After a pause, she started to talk.

"I used to do all right at school and I managed to keep up in the training academy even though I was quite small for my size."

A whole back story? This could take a while. He poured two cups of iced tea and handed one to the strange girl on his sofa. She took it gratefully and took a sip. He couldn't help but admit to himself that the story already sounded familiar. His brother's size and strength always left Loki falling behind and struggling to catch up. He looked out the window in thought.

"One day I got very sick. I had to take a lot of time off school and my training suffered severely. Even when I had fully recovered from the illness, my strength was destroyed and I was held back many years at the academy. I eventually passed with a D rank, which allows me the honour of cooking for and cleaning up after the warriors and fighters of Asgard." She spat the sentence with distaste.

So that's how she knew the faces of all the fighters. She had cooked and cleaned for them all after every battle.

"It is very disheartening to work so hard and get so little in return. I was almost without hope when I noticed a boy in another class fall from the rope test when he was almost at the top." She looked up at Loki.

He didn't look at her, gave no sign he had heard. Surely many kids fall from that.

"His friends laughed and teased him. So he suddenly started yelling and cradling his obviously broken arm. When the boys ran over to help him out, his arm was suddenly better and he laughed at how he had tricked them. They laughed with him this time and said he was clever to have had them all fooled."

Loki bit his lip. He remembered that.

"I started to watch this boy, to copy. It seemed I had a natural talent for learning and I was quickly able to see through his illusions and copy them exactly. I had nothing but respect for this boy and have never told a soul of anything I have seen him do. No one knows of my own abilities either."

Loki looked at her thoughtfully.

"What are you thinking?" she questioned.

Slowly, he said, "When we were on a trip to the woods, I had made duplicates of myself to chase the boar we had found. My brother," he smiled thinly "had decided it would be a good idea to destroy the side of the cliff above where we were. As the rocks fell, a girl pushed the real me out of the way. I always wondered how she knew. That was you." He thought long and hard. "Your name was Fey."

She blinked in acknowledgement.

She was a threat with her knowledge and he should really remove such a threat but part of him was developing a rather strong curiosity regarding this girl's talents. And she _had _outsmarted him once already. Perhaps he should wait a while…

Loki turned to her. "I do not require your aid or assistance, girl."

She nodded. "I know."

"Then why are you here?"

"Company."

The same answer as before. "I am not lonely." He laughed. "I have chosen this path."

She just smiled and thanked him for the tea.


	3. Chapter 3

Loki dragged himself into his room and immediately dropped his illusion and sank to the floor breathing hard. His brief but frequent trips to the other realms were not usually this tough or this brutal.

A knock on the door made him first realise that he had left the door open, and then realise that he had dropped his illusion. He gritted his teeth and began to draw energy to hide himself when a voice called out loudly "Oh don't mind me!" and Fey stepped into his room. He paused, mid spell, then let it drop with a sigh.

"It's rude to enter without an invite." He grumbled in annoyance. "How did you know I was back? I literally just got back two minutes ago."

She turned to see him on the floor slouched against the wall, looking much the worse for wear. "Wow. Rough trip huh?"

He rolled his eyes. "No, just rainbows and unicorns. I really hate those bloody unicorns."

She raised an eyebrow at the bloody smear he was leaving on the wall. "Yeah I can see they don't really like you much either. Let me have a look at that."

He would have protested but he was beyond having the energy to clean himself up today and would probably have slept where he sat otherwise. These new garments were much more comfortable than the armour he had been helped out of also. His eyelids began to droop.

"You never told me how you knew I was back. I trust you haven't been waiting in my garden like a puppy."

She snorted. "Of course not. I felt you arrive back here."

Felt? That's strange. He wasn't aware of anyone who could readily detect his presence. He would have to ask her about that… later. After a quick nap.


	4. Chapter 4

Fey was gone when Loki woke later on. Looking at his clock he realised it was probably just as well. He'd slept for over 12 hours and it was almost afternoon the next day. He got stiffly out of bed, wishing his body's natural healing abilities were as swift as his brother's.

He headed out to the street markets under his usual disguise in search of some food. Pausing by a stall selling metal trinkets embedded with colourful stones, he palmed one when the shop keeper wasn't looking and continued on. He looked down at the silver bird necklace with feathers of blue stones and pretended to himself that he had no motive in taking it as he slid it inside his coat.

Lost in thought, he reached out and took a bread roll without thinking and took a bite.

"Oi, you gonna pay for that, sir?"

Ah…

He quickly rummaged in his pocket for a coin which he knew wouldn't be there. He was surprised when his hand met cool metal and withdrew a shiny round coin. He quickly handed it to the baker with a muttered apology and disappeared into the crowd.

As he emerged at the end of the market, a small tap on his shoulder made him turn. He knew who it would be.

"You were spying on me!"

The girl feigned shock. "I was not!" Then she poked her tongue at him. "You were careless to let him see you."

"How did you know if you weren't spying?"

"I could feel your distress."

"What do you mean by that?"

"What I said. I know where you are and what you are feeling. I can see it all in here." She tapped her head.

He smiled. "You're lying."

She smiled back and slashed a knife across his throat. The illusion disappeared with a pop. The real Loki, watching from behind a market stall widened his eyes in surprise at the tap on his shoulder. The girl who had just slit his duplicate's throat had vanished.

"I'm glad to see you're feeling better," she said conversationally.

"The clone was only meant for a short time, to lure you out. I don't appreciate being followed."

"I wasn't following." She pouted. "I just felt you panic and decided to help out. You can pay me back if you don't like charity."

He raised his eyebrow. "The coin wasn't real. I could tell that much."

"No but I paid him double for the roll I bought after you to make up for it." She grinned cheekily.

He sighed. Remembering the necklace he pulled it from his pocket and handed it to Fey. "I got you something."

"For me?" She looked confused. "What for?"

"For taking care of me. Now we're even. Don't do it again."

She put the necklace on. "But what if I want more gifts?" she teased. "Just kidding!" she added when she saw his expression. "Hey, I noticed you have a lot of books about the history of Asgard. Do you mind if I come over and have a look at some of them?"

"Do what you like. It is not as if I can stop you." Came the resigned reply, already headed back home.


	5. Chapter 5

Loki watched Fey as she went through his books. He frowned as he thought.

"Why do you remain in my company when you have a good heart?"

"What makes you think my heart is good?" came the gentle reply.

"You are interested in history, you take care of your appearance, you appreciate beauty…" he trailed off.

She looked up, surprised at his choice of qualities associated with goodness. "Do you not also?"

Silence. Then, "You paid that man."

She thought on his concerns. "One must first understand great darkness before they can understand beauty. Small children do not look at the ocean and see it is beautiful. They are too pure." She paused. "My heart is neither bad nor good. It just is."

Loki seemed to relax somewhat. "I feared you were here because you wished to change me."

She smiled. "I see no need to fix a thing that isn't broken."

Green eyes narrowed again, but he said nothing to that. Instead, he said "Stay with me tonight."

This was met with a frown. "Excuse me?"

A vicious smile crawled across his face. "You seem to enjoy my company so much. Stay."

She shook her head, simply. "I'm not interested."

His smile became a leer. "Because you are a man? You should know that matters not to me." His eyes sparkled with mischief now.

She seemed to find this amusing rather than surprising. "I was born a woman, actually, though these days I take whatever shape I please. I am not interested."

He frowned. He had been so sure he had guessed right. He shifted in frustration. "Why not?"

Confusion started to edge into the girl's mind as she sought out the true reason for his questioning. "Why are you pushing this? There is a whole city of women, or men, who would be happy to be with any of your strong, heroic fighter disguises."

His eyes darted away angrily but he held his tongue. His silence gave him away.

"What?" she asked, as a thought crawled into her head. "…Do you have trouble maintaining the illusion or something?"

Once again, his silence was answer enough. She quietly chuckled to herself and he glared daggers at her. "Sorry, sorry. I'm just amused it took me so long to see the obvious answer. Let me think."

She turned back to the bookcase and started going through it again. Loki sighed and lay back on his bed. He'd almost started to convince himself he had imagined the whole conversation when Fey spoke up.

"I could help you." She stated, from out of nowhere.

He rolled his eyes. "Please, elaborate so I don't get the wrong idea." His words dripped with sarcasm.

She blushed furiously. "Not like that…"

"I know!" He rubbed his head aggressively.

She stayed silent.

He sighed and sat up to face her, face an acceptable version of apologetic. "Sorry, continue please."

"I could hold your illusion while you're out."

frowned as he processed this. _Hmm._ "How good are you?"

She grinned, an expression of mischief to rival his own. "The baker was me."


	6. Chapter 6

Loki had been gone for longer than he usually was when Fey felt his pain. It was sharp, and it was very worrying. She changed swiftly into her travel clothes and headed to the rainbow bridge, trying to formulate a plan.

Before she knew it, she was face to face with Heimdall, who asked her simply "do you have a message for me?"

"No, I need to travel through the Bifrost."

He looked surprised. "Do you have permission?"

"No."

"I cannot allow a commoner to travel the Bifrost without the King's permission." He explained, obviously confused that she had even asked. "Who are you?"

"My name is Fey. I need to assist a member of the royal family who is in trouble."

He turned his head rapidly, as though he was scanning the dome-like room they stood in. In reality though, he was scanning the universe, and possibly more. He completed his search and looked at her sharply. "I can see all members of the royal family."

"Not all."

The implication was clear as day. It caused the great guardian to pause in thought. "There was only ever one whom I could not follow with my vision and he is dead."

"But you would not be able to see if he wasn't." It was certainty, not a question.

"And you would?" he asked.

"He is in pain. Let me help him." She pleaded.

"I am forbidden and have only your word. Also I have no idea where I would send you if I cannot see his whereabouts."

"I can guide you." Another certainty.

"How is that possible?"

"Because I am your daughter."

Shocked silence. "That is impossible. I have not lain with a woman since before my employment with the King Odin."

"My mother only discovered she held me after you were taken into consideration for the position. She dared not tell you lest you lost your chance."

"This is a very serious accusation, girl. Who is your mother?"

"Mia Nissen."

The man before her paled. He seemed trapped in some sort of logic process inside himself, trying to detect a lie if one was there. After a moment he composed himself.

"You are telling me that you are my daughter, that Loki is alive and in danger, that you can see him where I cannot, and that you wish to travel via the Bifrost to his aid?"

"Yes."

He shook his head, contemplating. "I guess you'd better come inside." He took the sword. "Where are we heading?"

Fey pointed to the right.

He turned them in the direction she pointed and pushed down.

She narrowed her eyes, searching out Loki's exact location. A little to the left…

"Will you tell?" she asked the man, now bathed in the colourful light of the Bifrost.

He considered her gravely. "I don't see how I can unless I discover you have told an untruth."

At the last minute she turned the hilt ever so slightly and smiled. "Thanks, dad."

Heimdall looked up in surprise, and then she was gone. Into, for all he could see, nothingness. Wherever she went, he was blind to it. He supposed that meant she really could see something he couldn't.

He went outside and called for a messenger.


	7. Chapter 7

"You have called for me, Guardian?" An elderly voice called out.

The great Heimdall frowned with slight confusion. "Mia?"

She appeared cautious. "You remember me? Why?"

His frown deepened. "You know I loved you. I would have stayed with you if my position allowed it. Explain your current state."

"My state?" there was a hint of humour around her wizened eyes.

"I do not understand your age. Last we met you were in the prime of your youth. Now you appear to be in your final years. What sorcery has changed you?"

"I was much older than my body betrayed back then. I hid beneath a mask of beauty and youth." A small smile of pride.

"You are a magic user? Why were you not found? You could have attained royal employment, also!"

"My magic is not of Asgard. And, like the prince you cannot fully see, the King equally cannot see me for what I truly am."

Heimdall cut his eyes at her. "Why do you hide in the shadows then? Why not come forth?"

She barked a harsh laugh that turned to a hacking cough. "Though the magic in me comes from very distant blood, many ancestors back, it is from a world where the threat of war was always imminent. No, I was not willing to risk my exile for the sake of employment."

He thought over what had been said. "You and your daughter are part Jotun, and can apparently sense Loki like a beacon of light. But he is full-blooded Jotun and cannot sense you?"

A smirk. "Our Jotun blood is very dilute by now."

He nodded. Curious that some magic would remain strong where other magic would diminish with the dilution of blood. Time for the conversation to take a more personal turn. "Why did you not tell me of the existence of my own daughter? I have visited you from time to time, and there has been no trace of her existence. How did you hide her so?"

The elderly woman's shoulders sagged visibly. "I gave her up."

Heimdall's eyes widened in shock. "What?"

"My half-brother and his wife took her in as their own. They were more than happy to receive her as they could not bear a child of their own. She grew up knowing them as her parents, and they never knew her father. My brother was aware of the magic and blood I had inherited from my father, so kept a close eye on Fey, but he never noticed the signs of her magic and believed her to have escaped the effects of the Jotun blood in her veins."

The dark man sighed and sat on his stone steps, motioning for the lady before him – his past lover – to do the same. She remained where she was. "It was a dangerous thing to do. She could have given herself away and many questions would have been asked."

"No, she was unaware herself for a long time. Well until she was old enough to realise what it would mean if she had magic and no one knew. She grew ill one day, gravely ill. The healer's believed she would not live, so my brother sought me out. I gave my remaining magic to give her new life."

"So you can no longer keep up your youthful appearance?" Heimdall guessed.

"That is correct. I fear that my magic may have awakened hers however, because after that it began to develop rapidly. She is talented and possesses not only the Jotun ability for illusion, but also carries your sight. Combined with her Jotun senses she can see even the darkest corners of the universe as though there were before us under the light of day."

This sparked a new fear into the great man's heart. "She sounds very powerful. Where does her allegiance lie? Under what circumstances did she discover her parentage?"

A slight flash of worry crossed the woman's face, but then vanished. "I told her myself when I learned she had begun to develop her abilities in secret. It was important that she was not alone. That is what my father had told me when I learned of my magic. It was important to remember I was not the only one. Generations of our ancestors had carried this burden, and we carried it for a purpose, unknown to us still."

"You think that she, Fey, is the purpose." It was a statement.

"She believes that she is. She is very powerful, but I believe that her intentions are good. She has shown a great interest in Loki for she feels a strong similarity with him, she will stand by him."

"Loki is a trickster. He was supposed to be dead. None but us know that he indeed lives. He is dangerous." His fists clenched. "I do not know what I should do."

The older woman smiled. "Have faith in your daughter. She may carry the deception of the frost, but she bears also your pure heart. I believe it is sufficient to keep the ice in her veins at bay. Deep down, I believe that Fey is far more Heimdall than she is Frost Giant."


	8. Chapter 8

It had started out as just a routine trip between worlds to ensure that everything was continuing to run smoothly and according to his plans. Loki always had plans. It was just so fun to meddle where he shouldn't. Every little action he took had consequences foreseeable only to himself, and he made damn sure those consequences brought as much hassle down upon his father's shoulders as he could manage without arousing suspicions that their trickster of a son (or whatever he was to them) may not be as stone dead as he seemed.

Yes, being officially dead suited Loki very nicely, and it left him free of duties and with much more time for _fun_ as a result.

So this shadowy journey between worlds was an everyday occurrence quite literally for the demi-god. However, upon initiating his travel, a strangely uncomfortable feeling started to creep up on him. Travelling through dimensions now, it took him an embarrassingly long time to place the uncomfortable feeling, though he didn't really blame himself for that. Yes, he was sure of it now. He, Loki, Prince of Asgard, full-blooded Frost Giant, was cold. _Cold. _

He smiled thinly at the irony of that and stored the feeling into his memory banks for future reference. The cold must be truly intense. This form of travel had recently been making him miss the safe, bright travel of the Bifrost, which annoyed him because it was pointless missing something he could not possibly do again.

He started thinking through some of his more elegant plots and schemes when he became aware of a presence besides himself in the shadows. Or rather, several presences. Now that _was _strange.

He had, from time to time, come across pitiful, lost souls left falling through the darkness for the rest of eternity. It was one of the reasons he preferred the Bifrost over this method of travel. He wasn't really the sentimental type, but there was something just deeply… _sad _about their fates. He didn't like to ponder it too much. Loki knew of a few – a handful – of others who could travel like he did now (he had to learn it from somewhere), but these presences were not on his list of known travellers, and if there was one thing that made the mischief-maker really nervous, it was suddenly discovering that there was something fundamental that he did not know.

The alien cold feeling was building and he imagined (or hoped he imagined) he could feel his skin starting to turn blue. He pushed ahead, adrenaline mixing with his magic to fuel his movements now.

This was taking longer than he thought. Surely he should be there by now…

"HALT, DEMON."

Damn.

"PRINCE AND TRAITOR OF TWO WORLDS. YOU THINK YOU CAN FLIT BETWEEN REALMS IN MOCKERY UNNOTICED?"

The voice belonged to not one, but many, and it seemed to reach his brain by means other than through his ears.

"What is it to you what I do with my time?"

His mouth and lungs shaped the words, but no sound came out. Strange. The shadowy figures seemed to hear him though, for they made a headache-inducing noise that was eventually interpreted as laughter. Loki winced and shook his head to clear it.

"YOUR PETTY DEEDS MATTER NOT TO USSSS. WE ARE BUT SCAVENGERS OF THE DARK. WE HAVE COME TO CLEANSE THIS PLACE OF YOUR TAINT AND FEAST ON YOUR SORCERY."

Scavengers? He recalled long ago, a warning, a whisper of a story. He had been told not to use the paths too often or predictably, for sometimes something (or something_s_) watched. He had of course looked into it, but in finding no more information in any of the realms within his reach, he has dismissed the stories as folk legend to put his mind at rest. He had since used the shadows as he needed, or desired. He pushed ahead blindly with as much willpower as he could muster, which was a significant amount given the circumstances. He wasn't particularly fond of the idea of being feasted on.

"YOU ARE FOOLISH. NO ONE KNOWS YOU LIVE. AND YOU SHROUD YOURSELF FROM THOSE WHO WOULD SEE YOU. YOU TRULY WILL DIE ALONE."

He could make out their shapes now, they were close. And he didn't seem to be making much progress. He lashed out at them with shards of magic, but somehow his magic didn't seem to make it out of his body. He made to reach for his dagger and realised he couldn't quite locate his arms. Very strange. The kind of strange that would have made a lesser man panic and start to yell, or to scream in terror and despair. But of course, he was Loki, and he did no such thing (much as he wanted to).

"WE THOUGHT OF TORTURING YOU WITH OUR DARKNESS, BUT YOU HAVE SUFFICIENT DARKNESS WITHIN YOUFOR THAT PURPOSE."

That horribly grating laughter started up again.

"ISN'T IT ELEGANT? BEING TAKEN DOWN BY YOUR OWN SOUL?"

Okay, he _really _wasn't seeing the elegance or the humour in this situation right now. This would have counted as a moment that required a change of pants except that his body seemed strangely not-present, or at least it was not properly connected to his mind. He was aware of himself, and also not at the same time, and it was confusing and not a small part frightening.

Fortunately, (or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it) he didn't really have to worry about this fear for long. It was suddenly replaced by a tearing sensation in where he imagined his chest would be and he was thrown head-first into the darkest corners of his mind, his being. His soul had been split open like his own personal Pandora's Box and his personal equivalent of Hel broke loose.


	9. Chapter 9

**Author's note:**_ Hi everyone!_  
_Hope you're enjoying my story so far. _

_Just a warning that this chapter is pretty confusing and trippy! It was pretty weird to write._

Anyway, if you like the story so far please leave a review! If you don't like something but you've read this far please leave a review to let me know what I can do better :)

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**Chapter 9**

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The world was warped and colourful, bright and strangely sharp. As in, the colours were actually piercing his eyes like needles. Oh God, what was that red stuff everywhere? How did that get there? It was all over him! It was… everywhere. He was sinking, drowning.

Loki thrashed his limbs against the red tide but it pulled him down, the thick metallic stickiness filling his mouth, his nose, his ears and his eyes.

What the hell was even happening? How did he get here? And what was that…? Something was crawling beneath his skin. Everywhere. His imagination conjured insects, scorpions perhaps, writhing to escape his flesh. How did they get in there? But what tore itself from his body was… himself. A million Lokis, of action figure size peeled away from his skin. They turned in unison to stare at him, but they had no eyes, only empty pits where eyes should be and as one they screamed an unearthly high pitched scream. Loki joined them.

A light flashed above his head, something green. A tree? He struggled to think, to move, to understand something, but the light blinded and deafened him. He tried to yell, to scream, but something was pressed tightly against his mouth so he couldn't make a noise. His body tensed under his command but could not move. The noise of the light overcame him and his eyes rolled back into his head.

Back and back and back he was spinning. Spinning, spinning, faster, faster. Shapes were forming around him, pulling, poking, whispering, shrieking. He gritted his teeth and tried to block them out but when he closed his eyes they were still there, as though his eyes were still open. They tore at him frantically, pulling off bits and pieces of his being, though he wasn't sure quite what.

A loud noise. He was back under that tree. He frowned. A repeat? Nothing else had been repeated. Perhaps it was a message. There was a sweet smell… honey? The light was burning him this time, rather than deafening, but that was more expected wasn't it? He wasn't sure.

It was still overwhelming and the shape of the tree above him eventually disintegrated into shards of glass, coated in something thick, black and noxious looking. They hovered in the space above him threateningly, but they didn't fall so he just lay and watched them hang there. He was suddenly aware of his breathing – quick, short, ragged, gasping. He swallowed and made an effort to slow it. It was working, slowly. As his breathing slowed, he became aware of a heartbeat – fast and shallow. The beat was matched by a steady dripping sound around him. The black sludge was raining off the shards of glass, and what was underneath shone so bright he almost couldn't bear it. He reached up to touch – he couldn't help it, it was so beautiful – but couldn't quite reach…

The glass parted to make a pattern, a shape. The tree. He clung to this image like a life raft. That tree again, he needed to go to that tree. It got closer. A face. He knew that face. _Fey?_ He tried to say, but something was still obscuring his mouth. He shifted a bit, but could feel the bite of rope around his torso, ankles and wrists. He frowned.

A strange sensation passed over him. What was that? It took him a while, then he realised it was noise. She was speaking. What was she saying…?

"…hey! Loki, come on. Stay awake. Can you hear me? Nod or something. Come on, you're almost there, don't go back to sleep.."

Nod? He could do that, he thought. He sluggishly located his head, his neck muscles, and moved them in what would do for now as a rough approximation at a nod.

There was a pause in her frantic ramblings. "A nod? Was that a nod? Can you do it again?"

He frowned at the effort, but managed to do it again.

She laughed giddily. "And a frown too. You really are here! Hold on sorry, I'll just take off the gag."

He located his eyebrow and managed to raise it at that. The pressure on his mouth came away and he spluttered, his mouth dry and raw.

A bowl of cool water was raised to his mouth and a small amount dropped in. He forced his throat to swallow convulsively, suddenly parched.

"Not too much, yet." The bowl was taken away. An odd noise escaped his throat that could have been a cross between a whine and a growl, except that the God of Mischief didn't make such noises.

The pressure on his chest loosened as the ropes were removed, followed by the ones on his arms and legs. He considered trying to get his body to move to a sitting position, but decided against any such movement until the colourful edges to his vision disappeared at the very least. Maybe he should try talking.

"..uueah?" He got out. Huh. Yeah that didn't really sound like what he was trying to say, even to him.

He tried again. "…where?" That was better.

The face appeared in front of his again. "Um… I'm not _entirely_ sure. I was kinda hoping you'd eventually be able to tell me. I haven't been off Asgard before so…"

So, not on Asgard then. "…how?"

"You got a bit… trapped, somewhere between Asgard and here."

He nodded slightly. Sounded familiar. Something to do with shadows and lots of loud grating voices.

"…So, I got you out." She turned away, suddenly very interested in whatever she had beside her.

Loki felt suspicion coil inside him. "_How?_" He managed a half-convincing growl.

She looked back, her expression carefully blank. "I kinda… intercepted you with the Bifrost…"

Oh. Okay. Sure. "_WHAT?!"_

Ouch, okay. Yelling is a no. But seriously, what the_ heck?_

"Shh, you need to take it easy. I took you out of there, but they did something to you and you were fitting and screaming like crazy. I tied you up and gagged you for your own safety, and because I actually have no idea where we are and whether or not we're meant to be here. Didn't really want your screaming alerting the entire realm of our presence if it was unwelcome."

But… Bifrost… shadows… what? "How long… was I…?"

Concern crept into her face. "The days here feel a bit shorter than ours, but it's been about two and a half of this planet's days. There were times you stopped thrashing about for a bit and almost seemed awake, but then you'd be gone again. I didn't bring much with me but I tried every balm and ointment I know…"

He could still smell the honey. He sighed, then coughed in pain. Ugh. He was in this girl's debt again. But he was, admittedly, alive, so that was okay for now. Also very tired. He'd get more answers tomorrow.

This time when he closed his eyes, only the faintest sparks of colours remained at the edges, and they seemed to be retreating. He relaxed and gratefully let unconsciousness wash over him.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

* * *

It was dark when Loki woke. The colourful hallucinations from the previous few days seemed to have completely faded away to nothingness and for just a moment, he enjoyed the peace and quiet of the night and of his mind. It had been a long time since he had woken without sufficient energy to immediately kick his mind into gear and get the cogs of scheming turning over.

The moment passed. Time to pick up where he left off. First things first, where was he? The same tree was above him, so he most likely hadn't been moved since he last woke. There was the flicker of stars through the branches. He'd need to move out from under the tree. He rolled slowly onto his side, wary of any potential injuries he may have obtained. He continued onto hands and knees, then stood slowly using the tree for support. He felt stiff and wobbled slightly unsteadily, but seemed to be none the worse for wear from his ordeal.

He cast his gaze around the area, taking in the girl who apparently had fallen asleep where she sat watch against the trunk of a similar tree to his. He caught himself smiling slightly. Guess he couldn't blame her if she had been keeping watch for the better part of three days.

He walked a small distance from their rest site, careful not to wake Fey as he left, until he stood beneath the vast expanse of this realm's sky. He took in the constellations above him, rotating them in his head. Vanaheim. He looked around. He didn't recognise the area – they must have landed in an uninhabited region since he could see no signs of civilisation. Basically the best place they could have ended up.

"Are you sure you didn't know where you were going?" he spoke to the forest.

The crunch of a leaf sounded behind him. He turned to Fey, not really surprised.

"What do you mean?" she looked him over warily, unsure if he was still unwell.

"We landed in an apparently uninhabited area of Vanaheim." He waved his hand to indicate their surroundings. "It is a realm with which we share a strong allegiance. It's pretty much the best place you could have dragged us and in my experience, things like this don't happen by accident. At least, not to me."

"I guess I have good luck." She shrugged. "How do we get back?"

He contemplated for a moment. "You said you used the Bifrost to get here."

She nodded.

"How did you manage that? Heimdall is not easily swayed, even by my tongue."

"What can I say? I have a way with people."

His eyes narrowed at her. "There's more, you can't hide it from me." He could practically see her rifling through numerous stories in her head and casting them aside.

"He's not a threat to us."

"_What does he know?" _Loki hissed through his teeth, eyes flashing dangerously in the dark forest.

"Hey, if you didn't go and get yourself captured and half killed I wouldn't have had to come and rescue your ungrateful royal behind, so don't you get mad at me!" Her eyes narrowed back at him.

Oh so that's how it was going to be. He drew himself up to his full height (possibly amplified slightly by some subconscious magic) and stalked towards the girl. She stood firm, unmoving.

"You think you can play with me?" he hissed dangerously. "You think you're on the same level?"

In the blink of an eye, he turned and threw his dagger over his shoulder at the real Fey he knew was there. A gasp of pain came as it sank into her shoulder and the Fey he had been talking to disappeared. Suddenly, Loki was there, pressing the girl's pocket knife to her own throat.

"Oh sure, I'm _grateful_ for your help and all that. In fact I was just thinking to myself… maybe it's time I repaid my debt hmm?" The knife pressed into her skin, drawing a drop of blood.

She made an angry noise, twisting slightly in his hold. "This is how you treat me," she spat "after I spent days watching you writhe and scream like the tortured soul that you are? After I made sure you didn't bite off your own tongue, or hurl yourself off a cliff?"

He smiled sweetly. "I don't recall asking for your _help."_ With that final word, he reached up and twisted the dagger out of her shoulder.

She screamed in pain and staggered forward, clutching a hand to her bloodied shoulder.

She looked up at him, victorious. "Go to hell."

He looked down and the dagger exploded in his hand. And then she was chasing him. He ducked behind a tree, but a flash of light and a loud crack later brought it crashing down. He struck out with her knife, but she parried it with a piece of branch and struck him in the chest with her open palm.

He stepped back behind more trees, his head spinning and breath coming shorter than he'd have liked. He was still suffering from … whatever had happened to him.

"So your game is hide and seek then? I should have known. But you should know I'm _very_ good at seeking." She stepped around the tree and swung at him. He caught a glimpse of her face, grim and set, exhausted, but there was a slight sparkle in her eyes… wha –

_Oof. _She smacked him across the side of the head and kicked his feet out from under him. He was backed against the trunk of the tree and as the girl came forward again, Loki switched to last resort mode. He grabbed her arm and just thought _FREEZE._ He felt the chill flow through his body to his hands, the power making him tingle with both the thrill of it and disgust at the creature he was. He couldn't help but watch as his hand darkened around her pale arm. He looked up into her face and froze. She looked back at him calmly, unblinking. _No pain. _Another trap? He cast his eyes and mind around frantically, searching. No, nothing. Not a trap.

He let go, hand falling to his side. He watched her warily, thinking. _Now, how was that possible?_

She stood above him for a moment longer, then sat slowly, keeping silent.

He tossed around possibilities in his head, but there really weren't all that many. This was interesting indeed. "It appears you are more like me than I thought."


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

* * *

"So you gonna explain what you've got going on there?" Loki asked mildly.

"I'm sure I don't know what you mean."

"Oh, cut the attitude." He rolled his eyes. "You know exactly what I mean. You can apparently sense me like some kind of tracking hound. Your level of magical skill approaches mine. And I just froze your arm to which you apparently felt no effect." He listed off on his fingers. "What's your secret?"

She mock considered briefly, then replied "Nope. Not telling."

He sighed in frustration. "You know, you're being a right pain in the ass."

"This, coming from the long deceased God of Mischief." She raised an eyebrow at him.

He looked at her for a long moment, then shook his head and laughed despite himself. "You're a stubborn one." He pushed himself back up onto his feet. "But I will find out eventually, whether you co-operate or not." He offered his hand out to help her up.

"I know." She replied solemnly. "I'm just going to make it as annoying for you as I can until I do." She narrowed her eyes mischievously.

And it was annoying, so annoying to not get what he wanted. Especially when what he wanted was knowledge. But he didn't let it show. Loki just smiled sweetly and said "I look forward to it."

Both of them standing now, the demi-god began to pace as he thought. "So, we're on Vanaheim. As far as I know neither of us have any urgent matters to attend to back in Asgard…?"

Fey shook her head.

"Right, so there's no time pressure, strictly speaking, for us to get back." He thought for a moment. "Unless Heimdall, or whoever you told gets worried that you don't return. Though I suppose it's been three days, so if he hasn't already raised some sort of alarm he probably won't."

"He won't tell." She said.

He burned to know how she had managed to get the man on her side. Such a skill would be useful for him to learn, but he knew she wouldn't tell. "So I suppose that the Bifrost is an option. I will assume Heimdall knows or has guessed at my miraculous rise from death. Since him and I do not really see eye to eye, I doubt he would open it for me but perhaps there is something you hold over him that would make him do it…" he trailed off but Fey said nothing so he continued. "The other option is for me to take us both back through the shadows." He paused as an unhappy feeling settled into his stomach at the thought of returning that way. He pushed it aside. "But I need to know more about the beings I met in there and how I can avoid them before I'm happy to attempt that again." He pulled a face. "Those are our options."

After a moment Fay spoke up. "There is another option."

He waited.

"I believe I can get Heimdall to open the Bifrost for us both if you unshroud us. However…" she paused. "I'm not certain what kind of… _reception_ we should expect to receive."

He sighed. Of course.

"There exists the possibility that he has created a decent cover story for my excursion in which case he would expect me to return with another, so you would be fine to return in disguise."

"What is the likelihood of this being the case? Of him willingly letting us back?"

The girl considered. "I would like to think it the most likely outcome." She stated.

"But…?" There was always a but.

"But we must be prepared for the possibility that he has turned one, or both of us in."

Loki nodded and turned, heading back towards where they had made their camp. "I'll think on it." He said over his shoulder. "Get some rest."


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

* * *

Loki really didn't like this. Despite Fey's assurances that Heimdall would not betray them he could not help but recall the numerous times the guardian had gone out of his way to be an inconvenience for the Asgardian prince. The more he thought about it, the more he became convinced that the man would have come up with something to make his life difficult upon his return via the Bifrost. There was obviously some deal between the sleeping girl beside him and the man who watched over the nine realms, but he didn't doubt the man would find a way to bend the words of such a deal if it meant he could reveal Loki as alive.

The obvious solution was to send Fey back on her own, while he stayed here and revisited his research on the method of shadow-travelling and the creatures that lurked within. Vanaheim was as good a place to start as any; it held extensive libraries not unlike those of Asgard. It also had a few very ancient areas with long-forgotten passages and secret rooms still being discovered.

It actually irked him how perfectly convenient it all was. What were the chances he would end up in the best possible location for what he needed to do? The coincidence gave him a very strong and deep-seated sense of unease, but he wasn't going to turn down such an opportunity when it came and presented itself so openly to him.

Now he just had to trick Fey into heading back to Asgard without him.

It was a surprisingly easy task to accomplish. He almost told himself off for putting so much thought into it, but he had enjoyed the challenge of outsmarting this girl who could somehow make his life so _interesting_ when she decided to try.

He would make a cynic out of her yet. Though it was quite endearing how trusting she still was despite the fact that he was the reason for the thick bandage wrapped about her shoulder. He could have healed it for her, but she would heal on her own fast enough and he was hoping the pain might take the edge off her sharp wits.

So it was that the two of them came to be standing out in the open, a short distance from the shelter of the trees that had been their home for the past three days. Fey fussed over his appearance, changing it ever so slightly here and there to make sure he would pass for, perhaps, a rescued traveller returning home, or a prisoner brought back to face justice, or whatever other story she could think of that Heimdall could have told on her behalf.

When she was satisfied, she turned to him and breathed "Okay." Then she made a gesture and said "reveal us to him."

Loki nodded when he was done. And she looked up to the sky and called out clearly, "Heimdall, open the bridge!"

He was glad for her trust, for she had not been paying attention enough to notice he had unshrouded only her. To her, his presence was always there, so it was easy to overlook. However when the rainbow bridge came down to claim her, he couldn't help but feel a slight pang of guilt as she turned to see him step back out of reach and disappear on the other side of the wall of light. The image of her face – confused and uncomprehending – stayed burned into his eyes for a few seconds after the light had vanished.


	13. Chapter 13

**Author's Note: **_Sorry for the delay in getting this chapter up! It's been an absolutely crazy week... on top of everything, this chapter really didn't want to be written (maybe 13 really is unlucky) so it's also pretty short. I'm sure the next ones will be easier to write! Hopefully when things settle down with work I'll be able to update more regularly again :) Please let me know what you think by leaving a review!_

* * *

**Chapter 13**

* * *

After a few days of walking, the scenery began to look familiar to Loki. At first he feared he had walked in a circle, but he quickly put that thought aside – he had not lost his way unless the sun and the stars had become unruly in their guidance. Perhaps he was going mad? He was not entirely sure if any kind of long-term damage had been done while he was trapped in the shadows, but he felt uneasy when he remembered the tearing feeling as the creatures had opened up his soul. He'd also noticed that he was getting the occasional dizzy spell followed by the prickly sensation that he was being watched.

Eventually, however, he decided that the place was starting to look familiar because he'd been here before some years previously with none other than Thor and his annoying _friends_. It had been some kind of rescue mission that had taken about three times as long as it should have due to Volstagg managing to convince the others that they should take the opportunity to practice their hunting skills on the way. From the memories, he estimated he was only a day or so out from the main city.

Getting in wasn't even a challenge. Loki was a bit miffed. He'd put on a disguise and thought up a story and everything and the place wasn't even guarded! The people going about their daily business on the streets seemed strangely subdued, compared to the normal easy-going attitudes of the Vanir. He wondered briefly if it was some sort of Remembrance Day like those he had seen observed on Midgard.

As he was wandering up a cobblestoned side street, a sudden wave of dizziness washed over him and he abruptly sagged against the brick wall of a building while he waited for it to pass. At the edge of his perception he imagined he could hear lots of sharp voices… He shook his head and they were gone. Glancing up to make sure he had not attracted any unwanted attention, the sign of the building he was currently leaning against caught his eye – the Flying Ship, Bar and Inn. Well, he did need to figure out what was going on in this place, why not take the opportunity to relax and have some fun while he was at it? He stumbled forward and pushed through the wooden doors to the bar.


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

* * *

"…what the… OH GOD! WHAT THE HECK?!"

Loki whimpered slightly pathetically as the noise of someone's unnecessarily loud shout bounced around inside his very tender head. What the heck indeed. He made to get up and teach this obviously lesser being a thing or two about not yelling when people were sleeping, but sitting up appeared to be the wrong thing to do.

Not only were the blindingly while walls and pale tiled floor he was apparently lying on unfamiliar, but the straight lines that usually defined such things as walls didn't really want to co-operate with him right now – they swayed and warped out of shape in a way that was highly disconcerting and slightly nauseating. He took in the slightly squiggly looking toilet bowl beside him and paired it with the splitting headache and his current state of health (or lack thereof) and decided that the most likely cause of his situation was that he drank too much and spent the night in the bathroom of the inn. He reached into his mind to recall some memory of the events of the previous evening, but his head came back with nothing but relentless pounding. Or perhaps that was the pounding of approaching footsteps he was hearing.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me…" came a second voice.

Oh, he'd almost forgotten about the voice that had so rudely woken him from his drunken stupor. He sought out the source of the noise and froze as he took in the two beings in the doorway. They looked just about as shocked to see him as he was to see them. He blinked a couple of times, hoping that he was imagining this, but they remained consistent, if not a little warped in his vision.

He coughed and managed to spit out "This isn't possible." His voice was gravelly and rough, almost as if someone had taken the liberty of rubbing it down with sandpaper while he had been asleep.

Their wide-eyed shock was a mirror of how Loki felt. "You're telling me." The first voice said.

All of a sudden, the events of the previous night seemed a whole lot more important to the dishevelled god. Because really, it wasn't every day that you woke up in a completely different realm from the one you had started in with no recollection of how you got there. And it was particularly unusual (and extremely annoying) for the place you wake to be none other than Tony Stark's bathroom floor. He struggled to his feet, his body fighting him the whole way.

Tony, the owner of the first voice, stepped into the bathroom in panic and held up his hands in a way that said 'stay'. "Nonononono, that's not a good idea… How about you just stay sitting…?"

Loki's attempt to tower menacingly over the shorter man was cut when the additional height made the room lurch violently. From the door, Bruce Banner took a great interest in how quickly the god's face could change from sickly pale to a substantially more sickly shade of green. Both men looked away as he swiftly spun, dropped to his knees and emptied his stomach into the porcelain bowl.

Tony pulled a face at Bruce and asked under his breath: "_What the hell are we supposed to do with this?!'_"

Loki coughed and turned to glare at him, but under the current circumstances, the full force of the Loki-glare was strangely lacking. "This wasn't part of my plan." He said.

Tony laughed at that. "No, really? I know it's every bad guy's dream to come and be sick in my bathroom. I would have expected you sooner if it wasn't for the fact that, well, you're meant to be dead."

Bruce levelled a disapproving look at Loki. "You know, Thor's still upset."

Loki rolled his eyes. "Of course he would, he's Thor. But it was this or rot in a cell for the rest of my life, and frankly I have better things to do with my time."

"Like getting off your face and sleeping over on my bathroom floor?"

Bruce muttered under his breath "Which is something you would _never_ do…"

Tony spun around. "Hey! Whose side are you on?!"

The doctor smirked and turned to Loki. "So, why are you here? … and how?"

"Well," he looked thoughtful, "when a man and a woman love each other very much…"

"That's not what he meant!" Tony snapped.

"Oh?" Loki smiled innocently. Then a dark look crossed his face. "Though I'm actually not sure how that works for Jotun…"

A frown passed between Tony and Bruce. "How did you come to be here, on this floor, in Stark Tower, on Earth?" Bruce clarified.

He looked unhappily up at them. "I have absolutely no idea and that bothers me more than you know."

Tony snorted. "Looks fairly obvious from here. You got drunk and did some magic and now you don't remember it."

The green eyes narrowed slightly. "Yes, that is what it looks like. But I don't believe I'm capable of such a journey in such an… incapacitated state. It is more than difficult enough while clear headed, and this is not a journey I would have willingly made, no matter how much ale I had consumed."

Bruce looked thoughtful.

Tony just asked "And how much did you consume?"

Loki met their eyes, hoping they would believe him though knowing better than to expect it. "That's the thing, I don't remember consuming anything."

* * *

**Author's Note:** _This story has been moved to the Avenger's section. Plot bunnies picked up my story and ran with it. Please Revieeeeew :)_


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

* * *

"Right well I suppose I should hand you over to SHIELD at some point, but I'm actually pretty happy with you staying right there for as long as your face is as green as your cape."

Loki glared back. "Believe me, if I were up to it I'd be long gone from here. I don't want anything more to do with you petty Midgardians."

"If that were really true, I don't think you'd have come here in the first place. Face it, you missed us." Tony grinned annoyingly.

"Tony…" Bruce warned.

But Loki didn't dignify that with a response. He was clearly thinking hard.

"Wow… did he just… completely ignore me? Maybe I should go phone Fury after all."

Bruce sighed. Tony didn't like being ignored. "Tony, why don't you go make breakfast or something? I'll keep an eye on this one."

"Wow, dismissed too. It's not like I'm… I dunno, the owner of this building or something…"

"Tony."

He rolled his eyes and left grumpily with a muttered '_fine_.'

Bruce turned back to Loki, who seemed not to have noticed Tony leaving. He sat cross-legged a respectable distance from the man. His wariness of this man was outweighed by his curiosity at his obvious confusion and distress. He wanted to know more.

"What are you thinking?" he asked.

Loki looked up as though just remembering he wasn't alone. Upon realising that Bruce was the only other person with him, a nervous edge appeared in his demeanour. Bruce recognised that look immediately. When he was younger it would have caused a spike of anger that people looked at him and immediately felt nervous, but he had long since become used to that response. And frankly, for Loki, it was a well justified concern. He smiled slightly, but there was a sad edge to his eyes.

"You don't need to worry," he pointed to his chest, "as long as you don't do anything stupid."

Loki widened his eyes in a surprisingly honest expression, "That's why I'm worried."

Bruce chuckled lightly. "Well, I'll do my best not to get angry, and you do your best not to be stupid, deal?"

The man nodded slightly and returned to his thoughts.

"I find that if you're trying to put pieces together, it helps to talk." Bruce prompted.

Loki scoffed. "Right, so that you can pass as much info as you can on me to that SHIELD you keep going on about."

"I don't give a damn about SHIELD. They dragged me away from where I was doing good, to come and destroy half of this city in the hopes that I'd also take you out in the process."

Loki winced slightly at the memory. "Well, if it means anything, I think you did a pretty good job of both."

"Apparently not good enough."

Loki looked mock-hurt. "I missed you too."

"Seriously though, what's going on?"

Loki made an angry sound, frustration returning to his expression. "I get the feeling that someone's playing a rather annoying practical joke on me. Someone powerful. I never drink like this," he gestured to indicate his current state, "so whoever it was must have managed to drug me without me even noticing. And _that_ does not happen often."

"Any ideas who?"

"A few." He looked unhappy. "It's not as though I've tried to take over or destroy multiple realms or something. Though to be fair, the taking over thing was not _entirely_ my fault…"

Bruce raised his eyebrows. "Seemed like it was your fault."

"Well, that was kind of the point." Loki muttered, sounding exasperated.

Bruce thought. "It's interesting, I expected you to take full responsibility for that one."

"Yes, well, I can't deny that the thought of ruling you lot was rather a fun one," he noticed Bruce's expression harden, but continued, "that is of course how they managed to get to me."

"So you're saying the Chitauri used some kind of… mind control on you?"

"Something like that."

"Like what you did to Clint and Erik?"

Loki paused. "Not exactly, no."

The other man waited.

"I manipulated those two with magic."

Bruce thought he could see where this was going. "And…?"

Rather than irritated Loki looked uneasy. "The Chitauri used… other means." He had meant to sound casual, but he couldn't keep the slight shaking from his voice. He blamed it on being drugged.

Hmm, that did shed a different light on things. "You really didn't seem to mind all that much though." He pointed out.

Loki smiled wryly and held his hands out, palm up. "God of Lies."

"That doesn't really help to convince me to believe you, you know."

"I'm well aware."

"So how'd you think you got here?"

"Either someone knows a way of travel between realms that I'm not aware of – possible – or someone brought me here via a path I was unwilling to travel – possible but unlikely considering…" he paused.

Bruce noticed. "Considering?"

"That's the other thing. My usual means of travel is no longer an option. I was ambushed, and I believe still hunted for."

"You can't get past them with magic? Or by tricking them?"

"No."

"So… you're stuck on Earth?"

He gritted his teeth. "…yes."

"Are we going to be put in danger if whatever is pissed at you comes after you?"

Loki frowned. He hadn't thought about that.

"Right then. You look like you're feeling a bit better." The doctor got to his feet. "Want to come get some green tea?"

Loki looked up at the hand offered out to him. He stood by himself silently glad he didn't shake or stumble. Then he nodded and followed the man out of the room.


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16**

* * *

Loki sipped warily at this green tea. He thought it would be more appropriate to call such a beverage yellow-brown tea since he couldn't see anything remotely green about it, but it tasted good.

"Tony… a word please?" he heard Bruce mutter under his breath.

"You can have your word here. I'm not leaving him unguarded." Tony challenged.

He smirked. He could feel Bruce rolling his eyes from here.

"Tony, something weird is going on…"

"Are you kidding me? There's a dead god drinking tea in my kitchen! Of course something weird is going on! If he's well enough to do that, he's well enough to be arrested. Jarvis, call –"

"_Wait!"_ Tony looked surprised. Bruce didn't usually raise his voice. Loki looked up cautiously at the sound too.

Tony frowned. "You don't want to hand him over?"

Bruce looked uneasy. "Listen, I – "

"Whose side are you on Doctor Banner?" he asked dangerously.

Bruce's eyes flashed an alarmingly bright shade of green, and the whole room seemed to grow visibly tense. He clenched his fists and looked away breathing rapidly a few times. No one moved.

"Tony." he couldn't quite keep the growl from his voice. He didn't look up at the man he was speaking to. "Something weird is going on, and the other guy…" he paused to breathe a few times. "The other guy can feel it."

Tony's voice sounded worried. "You think Loki is doing something to the other guy?" He glanced up at the tea-drinking man in his kitchen. "What kind of something?"

"No… not him. The other guy's been feeling uneasy for a while now, like dogs sometimes do just before earthquakes. I talked to Loki in the bathroom…"

"Yeah I heard. Some bullshit about him not being at fault for what happened –"

"Not that bit. What he said about being hunted, watched, about someone playing a joke on him… it feels like what the other guy's been feeling."

Loki narrowed his eyes in alarm. If this being messing with him could be felt by the… creature inside the doctor… that would be powerful magic indeed…

"Bruce… you haven't been sleeping well recently. Are you sure you're not just over tired and –"

"NO!" He growled slamming his hands down on the table with more force than he meant to, a large crack appearing across the wooden surface. Loki jumped, almost spilling his tea. Tony took two decently sized steps back. Bruce clenched and unclenched his fists, breathing raggedly. "He's been harder to control…" he hissed between his teeth, "because he's afraid. He senses something that we can't." The last sentence was a definite growl.

Tony looked very much like he wanted to argue, but he waited warily for the other man to calm down.

After a minute of dead stillness and silence, save for Bruce's ragged breaths, to Doctor spoke again.

"Tony, his fear - it's powerful. I can feel it, even now. I think we're going to need help for this one, and I think," he looked up at Loki, his eyes still alarmingly green, "I think he's just as in the dark about this as we are. We've each got knowledge that the other doesn't and I think, to face whatever is coming, we're going to need to work together." He breathed out, having finally managed to get out what he was trying to say.

Loki regarded him. His fear, the panicked look in his eyes, it reminded him of the strangely subdued faces of the Vanir. Whatever this was, it was much bigger than he was, and he was feeling very uneasy not for the first time.

Both men were still looking at Loki expectantly, awaiting some form of response, but just as he opened his mouth to deliver one he was interrupted by a disembodied voice.

"_Sir, it appears that several of my sub-processes are malfunctioning."_

_An AI._ Loki realised.

Tony frowned. "What? Which ones Jarvis?"

"_Well… all of them."_

That's impressive. It's been programmed to display fear.

"WHAT?! HOW?" Tony was on his feet, pulling open a laptop to run diagnostics.

"_I'm not sure, sir. What should I do?"_

"Hold on Jarv, I'm running some checks."

"_Already been done sir, nothing out the ordina-bzzt-… main processes are failing sir."_

"Shit! What's going on? Jarvis, reboot!"

"_Negative, sir –bzzzzt- … I cannot –bzzzzt- … my name –bzzzzt-…"_

_"_JARVIS?!" Tony looked and felt utterly helpless . Bruce watched in horror. Loki felt very uneasy. Maybe he should head back to the bathroom…

"_Sir? Sir? Are you there sir? Sir, I've lost visuals. Sir, do you copy?"_

_"_I'm here Jarvis, it's okay. I'll sort this out and have you up and running in no time." He sounded shaky.

"_Sir? Sir? Are you there sir?"_

_"_Yes, Jarvis I'm here!"

"_Sir, do you copy?"_

Tony said nothing, his eyes strangely shiny.

"_Sir, are you –" _

Tony hit the mute button. Nobody moved. Then he turned to Loki.

"This had _better not_ be your doing. Because I swear to god, if you did this, I will rip to into so many pieces…"

Loki held up his hands in surrender. "I didn't even know you had an AI until about two minutes ago. I also feel like my stomach is about to relinquish the poorly named tea I just gave it, so I really don't think I'm in the mood to mess around with a man who can pump me full of missiles at a moment's notice, or his friend who enjoys creating craters with my body."

"Yeah well, you were also dead until about three hours ago! How did you pull that one off?" He yelled.

Loki smirked and got up, picking up a rather large kitchen knife in the process.

Tony's face changed comically quickly to a wide-eyed frightened expression. "Uhhh… what are you –?"

Loki reached up and drew the knife across his own throat, blood splattering across all available surfaces in the kitchen. His body hit the floor with a dull thud.

"OH GOD WHAT THE HELL?!" Tony sat down quickly clutching his chest where the small circular orb of light shone through his shirt. That was not an image he would ever un-see.

Bruce chuckled lightly beside him and he looked up in confusion. "Well that was certainly effective… and believable." His eyes, back to a shade that would pass as brown, sparkled with amusement.

"Wait…" Tony turned back to his kitchen, still covered in sticky red. "That was a…?"

Bruce gave him an amused face.

"Son of a…" He face-palmed with feeling.

* * *

**Author's note: **_I'M SO SORRY JARVIS. I DIDN'T MEAN TO! D:_


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17**

* * *

It had been an exceptionally dull day at the office for Agent Coulson. As a man who regularly prayed for the quiet, uneventful days that came seldom in his line of work he did his best to appreciate that his boredom was a good thing. That it meant the world was not in imminent danger and that he would get a decent night's sleep for once. However, he couldn't keep his eyes from drifting, from the piles of paperwork he was mindlessly trying to get tamed, to the window – the portal to a world that held such excitement, wonder and possibility just outside his steel box with poor electric lights and ventilation that barely passed as air conditioning.

He breathed out evenly, and restacked the pile of forms before him. A small clattering alerted him to the fact he had just knocked his little container of paper clips off the desk. He leant down to collect the small plastic cylinder, thankful the lid had remained in place to hold the one hundred colourful pieces of bent wire inside it. He winced slightly at a small twinge of pain in his chest, then grimaced fully at the memory it brought back.

All in all, the medical technology SHIELD possessed was truly miraculous to bring him back from a chest impalement injury with no ongoing problems other than the occasional uncomfortable twinge. But what hurt this man more was the memory of being taken down, falling so easily at the front line, cast aside like the weak thing his body was.

Being surrounded by super-human beings really doesn't do wonders for your self-esteem, but he'd worked so _hard_ to be useful, to be _worthy_, to mean something. Surely that had to count for something? It was all he wanted… but at the end of the day he had been kidding himself. He was just like everyone else who worked hard all day, all their lives. He was just another human, another casualty of a battle too advanced for a world that wasn't ready for it. He should be grateful for a lot, but he couldn't help but feel that part of the reason he was here now was pity.

**RIIIIIIINGGGGGGG!**

The noise of the phone jolted him from his steadily spiralling thoughts. His pulse picked up both in anticipation and in dread. A mission? His hand was shaking as he picked up the receiver, but whether it was from excitement or fear he didn't know, or at least wouldn't admit (not even to himself). His voice however, was calm as always.

"This is Coulson."

"Agent." Came the voice of Director Fury. "I've got a job for you."

Agent Phil Coulson couldn't keep the slight curl of a smile from his lips.


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18**

* * *

"Yeah, okay we get it, you're good at illusions. You can wake up now. And clean up the mess you've made of my kitchen." Tony's voice was flat and unamused.

Bruce, on the other hand, looked highly amused. "Maybe he really is dead. That, or he'll rise in a minute and begin the zombie apocalypse. Explain that one to SHIELD."

"Explain what to SHIELD?" came a voice from around the corner.

Both men spun rapidly to face the owner of the voice.

"Um, stay where you are!" Tony ordered meekly.

"Right. That's gonna work, Stark." Agent Coulson stepped around the corner, his eyes shining positively gleefully. "What's the big secret?"

Bruce backed slowly away from the kitchen in an effort to get some space, eyes wide in anticipation of what was about to unfold.

"Really, Agent… I think you should stay there… I'll explain to you over a drink!" He stepped forward in a half-hearted attempt to divert the SHIELD agent.

"Move aside, Tony." Coulson's voice was hard and flat. A direct order.

"Hey, I'm not technically a member of your force - don't play well and all that – so I don't actually have to take any orders – hey!"

Coulson pushed past him into the kitchen. Tony closed his eyes and waited.

There was a generous silence, then, "Oh. Here I was thinking the worst, and I find you two just wanted to have some fun without me?"

Tony frowned. "What?" He turned around and just about choked in his surprise. His previously blood-soaked kitchen was spotless, the limp body replaced by a very alive-looking girl wearing – well, not wearing very much really. She had medium length sleek black hair, bright green eyes, a very tiny black sequinned swimsuit and large black bunny ears. She smiled sweetly at Coulson. She turned and winked at Tony, whose jaw had practically hit the floor.

"Really though, I'd expect this kind of thing from Tony, but not from you Bruce." He turned questioningly to the Doctor.

The man, who had gone quite an impressive shade of red, raised his hands in surrender. "Believe me when I say: This is not what it looks like!"

Coulson smiled slightly amused. "Riiiight. I haven't heard that one before."

Tony spluttered then said, "No, really. I'm just as surprised to see her as you are."

"Right, okay. So, she just walked in here uninvited, through all your security, and you were just in the process of kicking her out when I came over. It all makes sense now." The agent replied sarcastically.

The other two men exchanged a look. "Well, he was actually pretty close." Bruce stated.

Coulson frowned and looked between them. "Wait… really?"

Tony turned to him. "Well, you just got in here uninvited, through all my security, didn't you?"

The man blinked. "Well, that's part of why I was here to see you. I tried to call you but your phone seems to be down… and when I got here, nothing was locked and your doorbell system wasn't going either. What happened to Jarvis?"

A dark look crossed Tony's face. "Jarvis is… temporarily out of action."

Coulson glanced up at the girl standing beside him who was now fiddling with her hair in a rather ditsy fashion. "Do you mind if we talk somewhere… private? Something weird has been going on…"

Bruce looked up sharply. "What's going on?"

Coulson glanced uneasily at the girl again. "Seriously, who is she?"

Bruce waved his hand impatiently. "It's fine. What's been happening?"

The other man's mouth tilted uneasily, but he explained anyway. "I got a call yesterday from the Director asking me to investigate some unexplained power cuts and surges happening in a certain area of the city."

"Fury? Asking?" Tony cut in with a snort.

Coulson threw him a withering look. He continued. "I started to get uneasy once I looked into it more. It seemed to be much more widespread than Fury had made it out to be. And…" he paused uneasily, "the problem appears to be getting worse very quickly…"

Bruce frowned. "What do you mean?" His breath sounded short and Tony glanced up at him warily.

Coulson continued. "Well, places that were unaffected by the cuts yesterday had started to get small power outages today, and the places with the cuts yesterday were getting them more frequently today. Also the affected area is growing very rapidly. It gives me a bad feeling, especially since the cause is completely unknown. We have no idea what is causing this. When I realised the new affected area contained Stark Tower… well I called. I thought maybe it was something you were doing? Or at least, that you wouldn't be affected since the Tower has its own power source…" he trailed off.

"It's not the power supply that's being affected." The dark-haired girl spoke up. "It's the equipment."

There was a shocked silence.

"How do you figure that?" Tony asked slowly. "Before Jarvis went down, there were no readings out of the ordinary. What kind of interference leaves no trace?"

"Leaves no trace that you can detect." The girl corrected. She smiled sweetly. "I believe you people would call it magical interference."

There was a click of the safety coming off a gun and Coulson raised his arm to set the girl in his targets. "Okay, that's it. No one moves until I know who the hell she is."


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter 19**

* * *

"I suppose I shouldn't be the only one who can come back from the dead, but really Agent, I _am_ impressed." The ditsy smile became a more menacing grin.

Coulson remained unmoving. "Tony? Bruce?"

"You might want to have a seat…" Tony said edgily.

"WHO IS SHE?!"

"Oh honey, don't shout so loud!" Loki took a step towards Coulson.

_BANG!_

From an outsider's perspective it would have looked as though someone had simply pushed the pause button on the scene in the kitchen. Then the black haired girl looked down at place in her chest where a bullet hole was disturbingly absent and the grin already on her face grew wider still.

"Well that was fun-"

_BANG!_

_"_I don't think he likes me…"

_BANG!_

"…Really?"

_BANG! BANG! BANG!_

_"_Yes by all means keep wasting your bullets! I mean with the Tin Man's suit being all electronic and probably not working right now, and the big green guy being rather keen to come out and play today we definitely don't really need the only type of weapon that might _actually_ work were there to be some kind of attack imminent!"

Everyone was quiet for a moment as this sunk in. Tony muttered a quiet _shit _under his breath and Bruce breathed out uneasily. Coulson didn't lower his gun.

"May as well lower that _sir_, I know you're out of bullets." Loki drawled.

Coulson held the gun steady, but from the look on his face, it was more to keep himself steady. "I know who you are." He spoke quietly, voice flat and emotionless.

No one spoke.

"You should be dead."

"As should you. What gave me away?" Loki's voice was mocking, he hadn't exactly been trying to hide his identity.

Coulson turned to the others. "Why is he here?"

Tony huffed agitatedly. "He turned up here and he doesn't know how. Bruce thinks something big's coming and we will need his help."

"And you didn't think maybe it was a trap?" Coulson's voice was carefully calm.

"Of course I think it's a trap! But I don't really have a lot of power to do anything here in case you hadn't noticed! And for the 45 minutes we've been standing in this kitchen, Bruce has been about ready to kill us all for about 30 of them so I didn't argue!"

"So this is who you are without your suit and your AI? A coward who lets compromised people push him around and make potentially devastating decisions on his behalf?!" Coulson turned to face the man, his face a mask of pure disgust.

"Jarvis is the closest thing I have to family." Tony's voice was low and steady, but his eyes held a warning light. "Forgive me if I'm a little preoccupied!" he spat.

"THIS PLAYBOY BUNNY IN YOUR KITCHEN SINGLE-HANDEDLY DESTROYED HALF OF NEW YORK!" Coulson yelled. "Or had you forgotten that in the alcoholic haze you're always in?!"

"NEW YORK WOULDN'T EVEN EXIST ANY MORE IF IT WASN'T FOR ME!" Tony yelled back now, hands clenched into fists. "I can never escape the memories of that day! Not even in my dreams!"

"What would you know of that?!" Coulson all but spat.

Bruce made a noise somewhere between a growl and a whimper and dropped to his knees.

"Bruce!" Tony whirled, concern in his eyes.

"Doctor Banner?" Coulson stepped around the counter to get Bruce back in view.

He knelt there breathing heavily, clenching and unclenching his fists. His skin colour was not quite right, a sheen of sweat covering its surface.

"Shit, Jarv-" He stopped himself and bit his lip. Then he gathered himself and walked forward slowly, deliberately to Bruce and knelt beside him.

"Bruce."

"Tony!" He gasped out, voice sounding distorted. "What are you doing? Get back! ... nng…"

"Bruce, not now. Please not now. I can't do anything… God I'm so helpless…" Tony ran a hand through his hair desperately thinking. "C'mon Bruce, I need your help on this. I can't figure out this interference by myself. I need you."

"Ngggghh…. Tony…." The voice was deeper, a rumbling in his chest. He started breathing faster, basically panting now.

"Um, guys…" The female voice spoke from the kitchen.

"Not now Loki." Tony said flatly.

"No, really." His voice was no longer female and sounded strained.

"Not a good time." Coulson's voice was carefully even.

"Something's coming."

Tony and Coulson both looked up at Loki who was back in his own form. He looked back at them, eyes wide.

"Something big."


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter 20**

* * *

What happened next was something that none of them were really prepared for.

The lights went out.

Only, it wasn't just the lights – the room was pitch black. Blacker than pitch black. It was as though someone had turned out the sun, or perhaps turned off their eyes. Tony got a brief sense of what Jarvis must have felt when his visuals went.

He swung his head from side to side in panic, hoping to catch some source of light, but there was nothing.

_Hello?_

His own voice sounded very small and alone. It didn't echo back to him off anything. He was overwhelmed by the sudden feeling of being surrounded by nothing on any side, suddenly aware that he couldn't feel any ground beneath him either. His stomach lurched at the thought and he curled in on himself, so very small in such endless nothingness. Even worse than that was the crushing feeling of hopelessness, the feeling that no one was going to come for him, that no one would _want_ to even if they could. He was going to die here, nowhere, all alone. So very alone…

Bruce was past the point of no return and he knew it. That was why he was surprised to find himself still un-transformed a few moments later when a strange silence had come over him. He kept his eyes closed and waited. That was when he realised that it was more than just silence that had come over him. He was alone.

It was… unbelievable.

All his life he had been fighting, struggling, holding back that other guy. Always trying to be a person, not just the monster inside. Now he was here –somewhere – and he was _just him._ It was freedom, it was peace, and it was… really unfair.

Why did he get to finally be himself when there was no one here to witness Bruce as just Bruce? He finally got the chance to prove that he was an individual, a human being in his own right, and he was denied the audience to share it with? Why was it always like this? Life was forever playing jokes on him, messing with him, turning him round and round and inside out and he was just expected to put up with it? It made feel so… so… oh.

He finally opened his eyes and saw the green flames licking back the darkness around him. He couldn't keep the tears from running down his face as he realised that he had always been alone.

There had never been any monster.

The emptiness about him, while intimidating at first, was actually rather beautiful to Coulson. He took a moment to breathe deeply and consider how he felt about this. Sure, he could die out here, but he could die any day in his line of work and he had long since gotten used to that fact. Death – while a mystery – was inevitable, and not something a SHIELD agent had time to worry about.

No, this was one of the reasons he had joined SHIELD in the first place. Life had been so boring, growing up. Everyone had gone to school, everyone had graduated and gotten a job, everyone had gotten married and had kids. He had never wanted that – any of that. He'd read and read the comics, the stories, and he'd dreamed of the super heroes. Dreamed and dreamed his life away until his teachers yelled and his parents despaired. He wanted, needed _more_ in his life. His enthusiasm had eventually attracted attention and gotten him a small job in SHIELD. He had focussed his daydreams and worked his way up the ranks, and then they had happened – the Avengers. His dreams were so close. He had just wanted to be one of them, but he supposed, working with them – even at a distance – was the next best thing. He had done well in his life – he had succeeded in his own eyes and that was enough. He lived most days on the edge, doing things that ordinary people couldn't imagine. That was what he had been born to do.

So he sat and watched the emptiness about him, marvelled in its completeness and felt himself to be at peace.

He only felt a small flicker of disappointment when the darkness retreated and he blinked back into the kitchen of Stark Tower.


End file.
